SONSHIP STORIES:
PAUL KIMBALL
PLATTE, SOUTH DAKOTA
“My mom was doing her best in those days, and I remember, man, I was about 10 years old, and she handed me and my brother a shotgun. She said, ‘Boys, I need you to go get us something to eat.’ So we went out, brought back what we shot, cleaned it up and mom made an amazing meal with some rice, a homemade sauce, and what we shot.”
“But one time, we had nothing. And this vehicle from the grocery store pulls up, and the guy starts hauling in groceries. I just remember thinking, ‘What is going on?’ My brother and I are running in and out bringing groceries in, and I had tears in my eyes. I remember thinking for the first time that maybe God sees us. Maybe He's paying attention to us.”
“Muay Thai began as a way to challenge myself. But I remember one fight where I ended up breaking this guy's nose. There was blood all over, and I remember looking at him thinking, ‘How am I supposed to tell this guy about the love of Jesus?’”
“I opened up my own gym at that point. And a lot of guys would come in with a lot of anger, and I was able to absorb some of that anger as we sparred. I would talk to them about their anger and why it was there, and just gently started introducing Jesus into their life.”
“But I've identified as a servant all of my life. And so the language of sonship didn’t make any sense to me. Nobody spoke that language to me, until I attended a Canyon Pathways retreat.”
